


Cold Water

by Lori Lane (LoriLane)



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Child Abuse, Gen, Neglect, homeless michael
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:48:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22685740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoriLane/pseuds/Lori%20Lane
Summary: Michael Guerin smells like a river.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	Cold Water

Cold water was a fact of life. Michael was intimately familiar with cold water. Growing up in foster care meant shitty houses with shitty water pressure and shitty boilers. By the time it was his turn to shower, the hot water inevitably ran out.

And then there were the religious fanatics.

They actually had a working boiler but they strongly believed that the only way to get the devil out was fire or ice. When burning crucifixes failed to expel his demons, Michael was routinely shoved into the frozen shower in the winter. Icy water pelting his skin, stealing his breath. Mr. Connor would hold him by the scruff and make him stand there naked and shivering until he was satisfied that the demons causing his foster son to “act out” were properly quelled. At least for that moment. At least until Michael rolled his eyes again. Or asked for more food. Or woke up screaming.

Michael Guerin was used to cold water.

When he was 16, he finally got tired of the system and moved into his truck. The truck meant no one hit him, but it also meant that a smelly teenage boy didn’t regularly have access to a shower. Sure, he often snuck into New Roswell High early in the morning and used the gym’s showers. But the school wasn’t open on the weekend, or the holidays, or the summer. He thought he was pretty smart for finding a section of the river that was mostly secluded by trees. It was perfect for scrubbing off the worse of the grime so he wouldn’t be the weird smelly kid. He knew a lot about being the weird smelly kid.

Of course he didn’t anticipate that this would create a whole new problem for him.

“Michael Guerin smells like a river!” Hailey announced to her gaggle of cronies.

Smells like a river. That description made its way through the high school like wildfire. Smells like a river. He’d hear them whisper and giggle. Smells like a river. Weird smelly kid. Nothing new.

Isobel was the one who talked him out of buying a bunch of Axe body spray to mask his smell. She even let him use her bathtub once when her parents went to a work conference. Isobel Evans had her own bathroom with a stand alone clawfoot tub and a jar of bath bombs on the counter.

She bullied him into the bathroom, turned on the hot water, dropped a fizzing orb into the tub and just pointed at it with authority.

Once his sister gave him some privacy he lowered himself into the steaming water, inch by inch. It was hot. Almost too hot. But in a good way. The bath bomb smelled like lavender. He was pretty sure he was gonna smell like a girl by the time he got out, but he’d rather listen to Kyle Valenti crack jokes about Michael going to Bath and Body Works then hear another kid call him river trash. Because that’s what he was really. They might joke that he smells like a river, but he’s not stupid. He gets the subtext. Michael Guerin is trash. He was discarded within two months of being on this planet. Kind looking grown ups came into the group home and picked his siblings and left him behind. And he hasn’t been chosen since. Didn’t get chosen at flag football, and didn’t get chosen at junior prom. He’s a dirty little secret who’s happy to do whatever you want so long as it ends in soft touches. And he’s good at secrets. Not only has he fucked Isobel’s friends who were looking to slum it, but he’s also slept with quite a few of Mrs Evan’s bridge club buddies.

They like that he’s eager. He likes the older women. Sometimes they call him a good boy and he KNOWS that shouldn’t make his stomach flutter, but it does. He’s not used to being called good.

But sitting in Isobel Evan’s clawfoot bathtub with water up to his chin, it’s easy to forget all that. He can feel himself thawing.

Cold water is a fact of life. But not for everyone. Just for Michael Guerin.

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found on Tumblr[ @angsty-aliens](https://angsty-aliens.tumblr.com)


End file.
